


a light in even the darkest places

by Livesinbooks



Series: Festive Banana Fish Stories [3]
Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Nyctophobia, Platonic Cuddling, Post-Canon, Power Outage, can be read as a ship too, not fully everyone but most of them, so kind of implied Ash/Eiji/Shorter/Yut-Lung
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:08:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28029051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Livesinbooks/pseuds/Livesinbooks
Summary: A scream startles him awake, and his eyes snap open.The room is pitch black, the TV as well as the streetlights right outside the window shut off.Ash is frozen beside Eiji, and Eiji takes one of his hands.“It’s just a power outage,” he mumbles soothingly. “Who screamed?”A door down the hallway flies open and then Yut-Lung is marching into the living room, clutching his phone with the flashlight on.So it was probably him.
Relationships: Ash Lynx & Shorter Wong, Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji, Lee Yut-Lung & Okumura Eiji, Okumura Eiji & Shorter Wong
Series: Festive Banana Fish Stories [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2049189
Comments: 2
Kudos: 74





	a light in even the darkest places

**Author's Note:**

> Can be read as platonic cuddling between friends or as a ship between the four of them  
> prompt: power outage
> 
> Enjoy!

Ash and Eiji are cuddling on the couch, watching _The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_. The apartment is quiet, Shorter is asleep, Sing out with friends and Yut-Lung is in his room.  
After everything that happened, Eiji wanted to take Ash to Japan with him, but he convinced him to stay in America a little longer as all their friends are here. They want to move away together some day though. For now they live together with Yut-Lung, whose brothers are all dead or beyond recovery, and Sing, whose half-brother moved away after almost killing Ash but being stopped by Sing.

Shorter still lives with his sister, but the amount of times he hangs out and stays over at their place, he may as well move in with them.  
Right now he’s taking a nap in Eiji and Ash’s bed as they’re blocking the couch where he usually sleeps.  
Eiji doesn’t mind it. He’s very fond of Shorter and is glad that they’re still friends.

The TV screen lights up the otherwise dark room, and Eiji cuddles even closer to Ash under their shared blanket. He’s already pretty much sitting in his lap, but he can never be close enough to his boyfriend. He loves him so much, sometimes he can barely breathe.  
Ash tightens his arms around him and kisses his cheek. A smile pulls at Eiji’s lips and he leans his head against him as on screen the sisters walk through the forest with the lion.  
Outside, it’s snowing, and wind is rattling the windows. He wonders if Sing will just sleep over at his friend’s place instead of coming home as it’s getting rather late. He’ll text him later if he didn’t already contact them by then.

Despite enjoying the movie, Eiji can’t help but notice how tired he’s getting. He stifles a yawn and reaches to the coffee table in front of the couch to grab his tea. It’s cold by now, but he doesn’t care and takes a big gulp anyway.  
“You think we’ll manage to wake Shorter and get our bed back later?” Ash asks quietly, sounding amused.  
Eiji chuckles.  
“If he’s being stubborn we can just carry him here.”  
“Or we all cuddle up together.”  
“Hmmm,” Eiji hums in agreement. He wouldn’t mind that. It’d be nice and warm.

The music on the TV gets louder, but Eiji’s eyes still start to close. He’s too comfortable and happy here in Ash’s arms to fight the tiredness off any longer.  
A scream startles him awake from his drifting off, and his eyes snap open.  
The room is pitch black, the TV as well as the streetlights right outside the window shut off.

Ash is frozen beside Eiji, and Eiji takes one of his hands.  
“It’s just a power outage,” he mumbles soothingly. “Who screamed?”

A door down the hallway flies open and then Yut-Lung is marching into the living room, clutching his phone with the flashlight on.  
So it was probably him.  
“What did you do?” he snaps. Eiji can almost feel Ash’s temper flare up, and he puts a hand on his cheek.

“Shh, I’ll handle this.”

Despite Yut-Lung helping them against Dino in the end and them living together for a few months now, their relationship is still rather strained and fragile.

“We didn’t do anything, Yut-Lung,” he then says and gets up. “The power went out, outside too. Apparently in the whole block.”  
“Well turn it back on!”  
“We can’t,” Ash hisses, and Eiji sighs.  
“It’ll be fine, don’t worry about it. You have your phone flashlight.”  
“It’s almost out of battery. It was charging when the stupid power cut off.”

Eiji nods slowly.  
“Alright, mine isn’t fully charged either, but I have a different idea. You two wait here.”  
Yut-Lung grabs Eiji’s arm as he passes him, and Eiji looks at him. He looks a little ashen, just like the other man on the couch. He understands why the two might be scared of the dark. After everything they went through, it may seem trivial, but it’s likely that they’re not scared of the dark itself, but rather what could be hiding in it, attacking them without warning.  
They’re safe in the apartment, Eiji knows that, and he knows that they know, but fears aren’t rational, and he’d be the last person to judge them for this.

So, he smiles gently at Yut-Lung and strokes his shoulder.  
“Sit on the couch with Ash, I’ll be back right away.”  
For a moment he’s sure Yut-Lung will protest, but then he nods and walks stiffly over to the blond, sitting on the very edge of the couch, as far away from Ash as possible.

Eiji decides not to bother with how childish this is right now, and instead continues his way to the kitchen. He knows their place rather well, but once in the room he still takes out his phone and turns on the flashlight. He sees a message from Sing saying he’ll be back in the morning and is glad that the kid let them know instead of just not coming home.  
Then he focuses on his mission.

He returns to the living room maybe three minutes later, carrying a bowl of candles and a lighter. Still, something has drastically changed in the living room: Instead of being on each end of the couch, Ash and Yut-Lung are sitting next to each other. Not touching, but close. Eiji tries to hide his smile.  
“My phone died, and Ash’s is in your room,” Yut-Lung mumbles. Nodding, Eiji puts the bowl down and places his phone on its screen on the coffee table so his flashlight illuminates the room. After that, he starts lighting candles and placing them all around the living room.  
When he eventually shuts off his flashlight, he’s pleased by how much the candles are helping.

He can see that both boys on the couch have visibly relaxed. But a new problem arises, Eiji realises as he sits between them: it’s starting to get really cold. With the lights, the heating went out too, and because of the age of the building, the insulation isn’t the greatest, which means the whole apartment cools down rather quickly, especially in winter with the wind as strong as it is tonight.

Yut-Lung to his right is shivering already, and Eiji can feel his feet freezing despite the woollen socks he’s wearing.  
“We should go to bed, it’s warmer there,” he says.  
“But you just lit the candles.” Ash sighs and leans back on the couch. “It’s not that cold yet.”  
The worsening shiver of Yut-Lung next to him wordlessly negates those words.  
“Okay, we have two blankets here in the room, so how about we just share them and warm up together?” Eiji suggests. That way they don’t have to wake Shorter, and Yut-Lung doesn’t have to be in his room alone. And cuddled up they’ll be able to warm up faster.

“What? No! I’m not cuddling with you two,” Yut-Lung stammers, sounding flustered and a little panicked.  
Eiji looks at him and shrugs.  
“Okay. You take one of the blankets then.”

He grabs it and then wraps it around Yut-Lung while the other watches him. Then Eiji wraps the second blanket around Ash and himself and snuggles close to him. Ash pulls him into his arms and smiles at him, kissing the tip of his nose.  
“You’re too good for this world, Eiji Okumura,” he mumbles. “I don’t know how I deserve you. How any of us deserve you in our lives.”  
Eiji smiles back and strokes his cheek.  
“You know, I don’t care if you deserve it or not. I love you.”

“Can you not be so sappy right next to me?” Yut-Lung grumbles, and Eiji chuckles a bit.  
“I’m sorry, we’ll stop.”

Eiji watches Ash’s face in the soft candle light and continues to gently stroke his cheek and then runs his hand through his hair.  
His chest is warm despite the cold air on his exposed skin. He’d give up everything for Ash, do anything to keep him safe. For him he’d sacrifice the sun and the moon. And he knows Ash would do the same for him. He’s never before felt so loved, and he can’t believe how lucky they are.  
After everything they went through, they still have each other. They lost enough, Ash lost enough, but Eiji will make sure he will never have to lose him. He will be with him until the end of time. Because here, with Ash, the thought of forever isn’t scary or unreachable - it’s sweet and promising. Together they can have their own little forever, and make it as beautiful as they deserve.

Getting tired as they slowly warm each other, Eiji leans his head against Ash’s shoulder again and closes his eyes, listening to him and Yut-Lung breathing softly.  
He’s almost asleep when there’s creaking on the floor boards in the hallway, and his eyes snap open. Ash tenses, one hand grabbing Eiji’s wrist tightly, the other reaching for a gun that isn’t there. They have one, but it’s in their bedroom. Eiji didn’t want guns everywhere in the apartment.

Yut-Lung is very still too, but his breathing is speeding up. Eiji reaches over and grabs one of his hands, holding it in a firm, hopefully reassuring, grip.

They all listen for more creaking, but there’s none, and just as Eiji can feel Ash relax again, a figure jumps into the doorway with a loud “Boo!”, and Yut-Lung yelps and throws himself against Eiji’s side while Ash jumps up in a fighting stance.

“Stop, it’s okay,” Eiji says quickly, holding both the young man clinging to his side and the hand of the one standing in front of him. “It’s Shorter. Shorter, you idiot, you scared them!”  
Shorter steps into the room, candles illuminating his grin. But when he sees how startled Yut-Lung and Ash look, it turns sheepish.  
“Sorry. I saw that the power was out and thought scaring you would be funny…”

Ash sits back down, clearing his throat.  
“It wasn’t.”

Yut-Lung nods but doesn’t move away from Eiji. One of his hands is in his hair, probably out of habit, but Eiji knows he doesn’t keep any needles in there anymore.

“I won’t do it again. didn’t know you’re all scared of a little darkness.” There’s no heat behind Shorter’s words. He probably knows the reason for their fear just as well as Eiji does.  
Instead of leaving again, Shorter sits on Ash’s left side and pats his back.  
“I’m cold, give me some of your blanket.”  
“You could have stayed in bed,” Ash grumbles but rearranges the blanket so it covers Shorter too. That means Eiji barely has any of it though, so he looks at Yut-Lung questioning who rolls his eyes but then lets Eiji share his blanket, still leaning into his side.

Eiji doesn’t mind it at all. He’s long forgiven Yut-Lung, seeing as he’s not so different from Ash in how they grew up and what they went through.  
And Yut-Lung did improve his behaviour a lot already and is trying to be more tolerable. Eiji would consider them to be somewhat friends by now.

So, he puts an arm around Yut-Lung to hold him properly and leans back into Ash’s arms who huffs but then shifts until he’s sitting behind him, holding him against his chest, resting his chin on his shoulder. Shorter moves closer and curls up with his head against Ash’s side.

In this big cuddle pile, Eiji relaxes with a soft smile on his lips. He feels warm, both physically and emotionally, and his eyelids droop again.  
The only thing keeping him awake is the need to make sure Yut-Lung and Ash aren’t scared anymore, so he forces himself to keep his eyes open.

After a few minutes, he can hear snoring to his left and looks over. Shorter is fast asleep, drooling on Ash’s sweatshirt. A glance at Ash to see if it bothers him shows him that no, he’s looking at their friend with an almost fond look, and brushes his hair out of his face, tugging the blanket a bit higher so Shorter won’t get cold in his sleep.

Eiji’s heart squeezes with how much he loves Ash as he watches him be so gentle with Shorter. When Ash turns back and catches his eyes, he shrugs and kisses Eiji softly.  
“This isn’t the first time he fell asleep on me. I’m used to his drooling.”

Ash closes his eyes then, so Eiji focuses on Yut-Lung to see how he’s doing. He’s not tense anymore, but he also isn’t really calm, so Eiji strokes his arm.  
“You okay?” he whispers.  
Yut-Lung doesn’t reply, but he does rest his head against Eiji’s chest and sighs when Eiji carefully cards his fingers through his hair.

By the time the TV turns back on, all three have fallen asleep, so Eiji stretches towards the remote control, careful not to wake anyone, and shuts off the TV. Then he finally closes his eyes too and allows himself to go to sleep.  
They’re all safe.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is always appreciated 🥰


End file.
